LINGUIST List 11.2677

Sun Dec 10 2000

Review: Rowicka: On Ghost Vowels

Editor for this issue: Andrew Carnie <carnielinguistlist.org>

What follows is another discussion note contributed to our Book Discussion Forum. We expect these discussions to be informal and interactive; and the author of the book discussed is cordially invited to join in. If you are interested in leading a book discussion, look for books announced on LINGUIST as "available for discussion." (This means that the publisher has sent us a review copy.) Then contact Andrew Carnie at carnielinguistlist.org

Directory

Dorota Glowacka, review: Rowicka "Ghost Vowels"

Message 1: review: Rowicka "Ghost Vowels"

Date: Wed, 6 Dec 2000 16:13:15 -0000
From: Dorota Glowacka <d.glowackareading.ac.uk>
Subject: review: Rowicka "Ghost Vowels"

Grazyna Rowicka. On Ghost Vowels: A Strict CV Approach. The Hague: Holland Academic Graphics (LOT dissertations 16). 1999. 367pp.

Dorota Glowacka, School of English, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland

Synopsis

The book offers an analysis of ghost vowels (vowel-zero alternations), using the Strict CV approach of Government Phonology (GP) supplemented with some insights from Optimality Theory as the theoretical framework for the analysis. The book also considers such issues as prosody, phonotactic constraints and morphology and the role they play in determining the behaviour of ghost vowels. The analysis is applied to Hungarian, Turkish, Yawelmani, Cairene Arabic, Mohawk and Polish.

The book is divided into two parts. Part I: General (pp. 1-157) comprises Chapters 1 to 4. Chapter 1 (pp. 3-36) presents the basic concepts of Government Phonology, both of the standard version of Government Phonology as well as the Strict CV framework of GP. Section 1.4.3. (pp. 31-33) introduces also some concepts of Optimality Theory. Chapter 2 (pp. 37-93) deals with the issue of head orientation in Proper Government. The author compares the standard right-headed (iambic) Proper Government with an alternative account, adopting left-headed (trochaic) Proper Government, and points out the advantages of the latter. The discussion is illustrated with examples from a wide array of languages: Morrocan Arabic, Yawelmani, Turkish, Hungarian, Cairene Arabic, Tigrinya. Chapter 3 (pp. 95-157) discusses the behaviour of empty nuclei in Mohawk within the framework developed by the author in Chapter 2. Chapter 4 (pp. 155-157) presents a brief overview of Part I of the book. Part II (pp. 159-301) is devoted entirely to Polish. Chapter 5 (pp. 161-187) presents the vocalic and consonantal inventories of Polish. It also introduces some basic facts concerning Polish consonantal clusters as well as vowel-zero alternations in Polish. Chapter 6 (pp. 189-230) discusses the behaviour of ghost vowels in suffixed words. Chapter 7 (pp. 231-265) deals with complex consonantal clusters in roots. Chapter 8 (267-298) is devoted to the analysis of ghost vowels in prefixes. Chapter 9 (pp. 299-301) summarises Part II of the book. Appendix 1 (303-307) contains the list of consonantal clusters in Mohawk. Appendices 2, 3, 4 (pp. 309-344) provide lists of Polish consonantal clusters in word-initial, word-medial and word-final position.

Comments

The book is written clearly, with issues concerning the GP representation of syllable structure and the behaviour of ghost vowels in a wide range of languages examined exhaustively. The book not only presents a comprehensive analysis of these complex issues, but it also provides an overview of GP and a critical evaluation of previous approaches to the analysis of vowel-zero alternations.

Although most issues are carefully presented, there are a few that deserve a bit more thorough treatment. For example, on pp. 162-163 the author introduces the vocalic inventory of Polish and explains the realisation of nasal vowels in Polish in the environment of obstruents. We are told that "nasal vowels are realised phonetically as oral mid vowels [e] and [o] followed by a nasal consonant homorganic to the following stop consonant, or by the front nasal glide when the following consonant is a palatal fricative and otherwise by the back nasal glide". What about the realisation of nasal vowels before affricates? Well, here nasal vowels behave in the same way as before stops, i.e. they are realised as an oral vowel followed by a nasal consonant homorganic to the following affricate. The status of nasal vowels in present-day Polish is a complex issue and it definitely merits much more attention than only the two-sentence comment devoted to it in the presentation of the vocalic inventory of Polish. Polish is in the process of losing its nasal vowels. They are realised asynchronically as an oral vowel followed by a nasal segment in the vicinity of consonants, while in word-final position the nasality is frequently lost altogether, which sometimes gives rise to new pairs of homophones in Polish. We must consider the issue of whether what we are dealing with are nasal vowels or simply different realisation of the two orthographic symbols: e-hook, a-hook, which used to represent nasal vowels.

One more remark concerning the realisation of the letter following a consonant. According to Note 1 on p. 162, "prevocalic [i], as in niesc (to carry), denotes the palatalisation of the preceding consonant, not the vowel [i]". It is true as long as the letter is preceded by the letters <s, z, c, n> and is not followed by another letter denoting a vowel. Thus, denotes only palatalisation in words such as niesc (carry), siano (hay), ziemia (soil), ciemno (dark). However, when the letter is between "s, z, c, n" and another consonant, it denotes both palatalisation of the preceding consonant and the vowel [i], e.g. nisko (low), zimno (cold), siwy (grey), cichy (quiet). The author does not specify how she interprets the letter when between a stop and a vowel, which is, again, another unresolved issues in Polish phonology. Does in such contexts represent the glide [j] or does it denote palatalistion of the preceding stop? If denotes palatalisation of the preceding stop, then palatalised stops should be added to the inventory of Polish consonants proposed by Rowicka (p. 165). The analysis of in the above mentioned context as the glide [j] leads to the augmentation of initial consonants clusters in Polish (cf. [p'es] or [pjes] pies (dog)), which, in turn, may have further consequences for the analysis of ghost vowels in Polish, especially within the Strict CV approach (cf. pp. 177-179). Considering the fact that the author does not always transcribe the examples given in Polish and the reader is forced to work out the phonetic/phonemic representation from the orthographic form, the rules of Polish orthography should be explained in more detail. A similar comment applies to Appendices 2 to 4 that are supposed to give the lists of possible consonant clusters in Polish. Here, again not all examples are provided with phonetic transcription. Moreover, the transcription found in the appendices is not very reliable as phonetic symbols or diacritics are missing in the transcription of a number of examples.

One comment concerning the consonantal inventory or rather inventories suggested by Rowicka. The author actually provides two different inventories of Polish consonants: a surface inventory of Polish consonants (p.163) and an underlying inventory of Polish consonants (p. 165), which is a bit misleading. Furthermore, it is not specified which set of consonants was taken as the point of departure when providing the lists of Polish consonant clusters in Appendices 2 to 4.

Certain issues are introduced a bit too abruptly. For example, Chapter 3 that, as one might expect from the title, should be devoted to the analysis of ghost vowels in Mohawk, contains two sections (Section 3.4.1, pp. 108-109 and Section 3.7.2.2, pp. 128-129) introducing briefly the Inter-Onset Government in Polish and weak vowels in Polish, respectively. Similar issues are dealt with in far great detail in Part II of the book devoted to Polish. Consequently, the reader is referred to Part II of the book for further details and discussion. Wouldn't it be more convenient to discuss fully the Polish data in Part II of the book devoted entirely to Polish?

In spite of these minor omissions, the book offers an interesting proposal for the analysis of vowel-zero alternations. It can be recommended to anyone interested in phonological theory and the interface between phonology and morphology.

[About the reviewer: Dorota Glowacka teaches phonetics and Polish-English contrastive linguistics at the School of English, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland.]

Dorota Glowacka School of English Adam Mickiewicz University al. Niepodleglosci 4 61-874 Poznan, Poland e-mail: gdorotaifa.amu.edu.pl